Boldly-penned ALS signed “Z. Taylor,” one page, 8 x 10, April 6, 1840. Letter to General Thomas Joseph introducing a former soldier who lost an arm, and is now seeking employment. In part: “At the instance of the bearer Mr. G. Sunderland, I beg leave to solicit your aid in procuring for him employment in one of the public offices in Washington as a clerk. Mr. S. is a young man of integrity, good habits, industrious, & attentive to business. He lost his arm in a skirmish with the Indians near this place in 1836 when a non comd officer in the artillery & at the time a clerk in the commissary dept, since when by dint of application & perseverance he has with his left hand, having lost his right, perfected himself in writing a fair business hand, & has been employed as a clerk by Paymaster H. Frazer…but owing to his crippled situation finds it very inconvenient to accompany pay master from post to post…through this wilderness country & therefore wishes to procure some situation where he can be stationary.” Matted and framed with a color portrait of Taylor, to an overall size of 23 x 18.5.
Taylor sent the present communication in the midst of the Second Seminole War (1835–1842). Since the second decade of the century, when the federal government began to lay aggressive claim to parts of Florida under the terms of the Louisiana Purchase, the forced relocation of the Seminole Indians—who had been allied with Great Britain during the Revolution—had become an ever-intensifying “problem.” This second of the three protracted conflicts between the United States and the Seminoles (which, in total, extended nearly half a century, from 1817 to 1858) was the longest and most expensive of the Indian Wars. Small bit of damp staining to top right, light brush to a few ending words of text, and mild toning, otherwise fine condition. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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